Pages

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Millions of Android users began salivating late Monday when a Google Voice update surfaced. What could it be? The long-sought MMS feature that power users have craved since Mountain View purchased Grand Central in 2007? An update to the pre-historic user interface? International texting? Maybe it would be a way to integrate Google Voice into the main Android messaging client, a feature currently only offered on Sprint’s devices. None of the above.

At least Google is paying some attention to its long-neglected internet phone service. It needs to; Google Voice is being overtaken almost daily by Android and iOS chat applications that offer nearly all the features Google Voice lacks. But whether Google Voice will continue, or remain a standalone app as we know it, is uncertain. Google pulled the plug on its popular Reader RSS reading service last month, so anything is possible.

For its 3.5 million daily users Google Voice is a Big Deal. Many have literally become associated with their 10-digit Google Voice numbers and addicted to the service’s once cutting-edge features.

Those cutting-edge features aren’t so novel now. The ability to talk and text from the same phone number on multiple devices seems so yesterday. Even Verizon offers computer and tablet texting, in both the SMS and MMS flavors.

That leaves Google Voice users in a love-hate relationship, always wondering when they should jump ship and call off the love affair — all of which is clearly evident on Google Groups messaging boards: “MMS…. MMMS….MMS….Come on already!” posted one frustrated Google Voice fan.

I wish Google would stop teasing us with Voice and just shut it down (instead of Reader which actually works). Google Voice has been problematic ever since their stupid push to shove Plus and Hangouts down our throats. I can’t get Voice to interact with Google Talk so I can use my PC and headphones to make and receive calls. They just haven’t worked in years, and it requires a LOT of effort to get any kind of functionality. And now that I’ve got a new Windows 8 computer, I can’t get the extension to call me whatsoever. I’m really starting to despise everything Google does. Do us a favor Google, and just END Chat, Talk, and Voice, and then go try to stand on your own with the stupid Plus and Hangouts which are obviously your beloved love child. Reader was awesome, PLUS SUCKS!

What we do know about Google Voice is that, in 2011, Mountain View integrated the entire operations into its real-time communications team. Headed by Vic Gundotra, that’s where the company houses its social-networking site Google+, Hangouts, Chat, and Talk.

These services all contain often-competing and disjointed messaging platforms that are likely to merge soon under a new product with a nickname of Babel. If and how Google Voice gets baked into that cake mix is unclear. Google refuses to even acknowledge Babel despite code of its existence popping up in a myriad Google products.

“As a company, we’re very invested in real-time communications,” spokeswoman Iska Hain said in a recent interview. “Google Voice is obviously a prominent part of our communications team. We don’t have anything to announce now. We’re always looking for ways to innovate and provide the best experience.”

Regarding Google Voice, Hain added: “We’re not going to leave those users high and dry. We have to think about how to make it better.”

It’s been more than five years since Google acquired Grand Central to create Google Voice, and yet the service hasn’t really gotten much better.

The last time the Google Voice blog was updated was days before Christmas, when the service offered free calling from Santa Claus — a magnetic pole away from what the service’s users were really craving. The most recent substantial announcement on the blog was in March 2012, when voicemail integration was declared for the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android.

Users aren’t giving up hope. Consider an Android Police teardown of the updated Google Voice application. It reveals what the Android fanboy blog describes as “an eyebrow-raising tidbit.” Android Police’s Ron Amadeodiscovered that the Google Voice app’s new innards allow for the importation of Google Voice settings into other apps, meaning the service is ripe to be incorporated into another service such as Babel.

Many expect “Babel” — or whatever it’s going to be called — to be announced at Google’s I/O conference next month.

When pressed, Google’s Hain kept mum:

“We don’t have anything specific to share right now for future products in this space.”